Real Salt Lake embarks on its MLS Cup title defense in a place it has never won, facing FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park in the first leg of their highly anticipated playoff series (5 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel).
These teams proved to be evenly matched in the regular season, with each posting a 2-0 result at its respective home park in their two meetings. If you haven't gotten a chance to read SBI's preview of the series, check it out here.
If you will be watching the match, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action!
Wow one of the most exciting games I have seen at Pizza Hut Park recently…maybe a combination of playoffs atmosphere and a modest increase in attendance
In that scenario you eliminate the possiblity of a true league champion.
What is the point of the regular season?
I don’t think a single table helps this league and if anything it would hurt it because it could be a turn off to a non-soccer fan who decides to give it a try. A lot of Garbers moves have bugged me in the past but can you argue with the growth and results of MLS?
Dallas definitely deserved to win. My team looked slow out there by comparison.
YES FCD!!! They really deserved to win this one! They will miss harris much less than RSL will miss Mcdiver (and I don’t mean Grabe-dive either)
another great goal. have enjoyed this game
Oh s**t! Wow. That kid just came on.
If a team can’t afford plane tickets they should be relocated.
Great goal. Dallas looks a lot better this week than they did last week against the galaxy
Geez, RSL is a train wreck right now….
What a goal!!
That was a beauty.
What a goal for Dallas!
remember who is reffing…. terry scott…. enough said
On the plus side for Dallas, it means that Brek Shea will be starting the return leg. That is a plus, right?
Would like to hear more action from the Dallas supporters groups
Wow. That was a horrible call on the red for Harris. Maybe a yellow, definitely not a straight red. The ref was right there as well. Just a horrible call.
Pretty good crowd given the FC Dallas baseline.
Nice one Morales….
Yeah, when the league has a full 20 teams, 10 east & 10 west conferences will make sense. You’ll play each team in your conference twice, and each team in the other conference once. Cuts down on travel and makes good rivalries.
I find it convincing, if only because European players always seem to mention it as one of the hardest things to adjust to in MLS. There’s also the issue of travel costs, which is nothing to laugh at in a league where only two teams turned a profit this year.
Tell ya what…not many keepers in MLS I’d take over Rimando taking all aspects of the position into account.
I have heard the “rigorous travel” arguement and refuse to believe it. How hard is it to sit on an airplane really? What is the longest flight a team would have to take, 10 hours? It’s not like they have to play the next day.
International players often travel to different hemispheres and continents for qualifiers. Should we cancel the World Cup because it’s too rigorous?
That’s what you get when the local school district contributes a substantially amount of money AND their support gets you a stadium you otherwise wouldn’t get built.
easy fella… Garber has mentioned on multiple occasions that it wont happen any time soon…. no chance it will happen soon (or maybe on his watch), but never say never.
Care to elaborate?
In the long term it seems like a reasonable strategy if the league continues to grow. The US is simply too large and the travel too rigorous to play a double round-robin every year; by avoiding the precedent of a single table now, it lays the groundwork for an imbalanced schedule down the line. And ruling out a single table doesn’t rule out an improved playoff seeding mechanism.
Predictions-
Houston and Dallas move to the east, Portland and Vancouver to the west.
Top four from each conference qualify, so a bunch of good teams in the west get screwed.
Seattle plays Portland and Vancouver 3 times each, and we once again have an unbalanced schedule, causing the Community Shield to be meaningless.
I agree with The Don.
GARBER SUCKS! He just said on live tv that there is no chance at a single table.
Is there anyone out there in Ives-Land who actually agrees with this guy?
#1 Akron falls to Clevaland State 2-1 WOW!
That finish didn’t look so lucky though.
RSL defenders stayed too static he’s old but still has the 1st step to leave a pair of CB’s behind, specially if they’re going to stay still and not move too much trying to stop him.
We’ll see who can hang in the long run, man I really wanted to see Real Madrid drop some points at Hercules, if they had converted the early chances I think Hercules would of won. At least tie 2-2 or 3-3.
Barca went back to their old selves with a 4-0 whooping on Sevilla, they got a man advantage the whole 2nd half but man they were doing circles around Sevilla in the 1st half
Dallas bringing the attack but Cunningham was lucky to split two RSL defenders.
Cunningham has been money as a super sub for Dallas this year, I hope he keeps his form for them next year and if they play in SuperLiga I hope he tears it up vs the Mexican teams
I spoke too soon! I did *not* see that coming with RSL’s defensive record.
Dude ask the folks in Houston or New England if those are bad lines, pretty amazing if you ask me
Lightly faded lines might even come in handy in offsides/onsides calls.
It’s the logos and the hashmarks along with the sideline that bugs
Goal boxes look great so the end zones were erased as well and literary as I type Cunningham levels the game at 1-1
atdhe is working now it took a while they were having some problems earlier with their server, I couldn’t even use them for the morning games, but if it doesn’t work for your, I’m watching it now on atdhe, try justin dot tv or firstrow dot net
Here we go RSL. Let’s make 2 nil.
Not that bad IMO. they did a good lob on fading the lines from last night.
what’s with football lines on pitch. They ought to look into building, another stadium nxt the Cowboys & Rangers. This looks horrible. I;m sorry makes for distactive viewing.
justin dot tv
awesome goal. timed the run, speed and power to win the ball, balance and technique on sweet little cut, and focused rifle finish
One helluva a finish there. At least Dallas managed ringer the football lines mostly gone.
Yeah, the link on there doesn’t work. I guess they are are not streaming it.
Well, that was fun while it lasted, right Dallas?
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!
Lova Ya ESPINDOLA
RSL 1 – Burn 0
I got a working one on http://www.rojadirecta.org/
Tried atdhe.net and it doesnt seem to be working, anything else, thanks?
http://atdhe.net/
anyone got a link for this? I don’t have FSC